The Psychology of Slavery-A Must Read for all of our families! Candy will set the stage and then Jon will come in with the root of the problems we face in a review of Gary North’s marvelous article on this topic.

Thriving Families or Thriving Worldly Individuals?

After Josiah finished reading parts of Focus on the Family’s magazine entitled “Thriving Family,” he shared how saddened he was by their apparent lack of understanding of what it is going to take to strengthen families and return this nation to its firm foundation of multigenerational family faithfulness. He concluded that they were really assisting the problem instead of correcting it. And then went on to describe the lack of biblical direction, leaving him to question the direction of this organization.

I was curious and so quickly read through the entire magazine. Disheartened as he was, I laid it down in disbelief wondering how people who claim to be Christians can miss the mark by so much. I don’t discount the staff’s genuine concern for reclaiming our culture by building the family, but obviously they swallowed the lies of this postmodern culture—hook, line, and sinker. In other words, in spite of mentioning God, this edition was worldly to the core.

And in spite of the theme of this magazine being touted as Building a Stronger Family One Moment at a Time, it blew their intent in just four sentences by this summation of Christian families’ lifestyle: “Fall is a busy time of year! Families are on the move with school and church, not to mention sports, band and Awana…It’s a fun-filled, exciting season that’s also a little bit—okay, majority—hectic. We’ll help you manage it all with easy, practical ideas that will keep your family thriving by maximizing everyday moments.”

My first contention is that activity away from home, separated from parents and siblings, is equated with fun and excitement. Then as hectic as this lifestyle will most assuredly make the family, Focus on the Family assures families that they will help them manage by maximizing moments so that their family can thrive. Knowing that a moment is just a brief period of time, I have to wonder how they think the family can thrive with such minimal attention when experience shows us that neither babies, gardens, homes, businesses, friendships nor families can survive, must less flourish, on momentary care. In other words, how can families prosper when they spend their time away from each other in school, sports, band, Awana, and church, none of which has anything to do with family except to disperse and promote individualism? Again, how can anyone justify that maximizing brief periods of time can strengthen the family so that it will thrive?

Now let me address school. Since it is common knowledge that 88% of school children deny their faith by high school, why would professing Christians condone schools and extracurricular children’s programs when they are antithetical to God’s Word and clearly the key that corrupts our children’s hearts? We cannot even for a moment entertain the thought that we can maintain our Judeo-Christian heritage by graduating millions of humanist socialists. Do you wonder, as we do, at this flagrant disconnect?

If this is not bad enough, everywhere across America, lesbian and homosexual clubs exist even in elementary schools. And Christians take it for granted their children will come out unscathed as long as organizations like Focus on the Family, and the apostate church, help them navigate through these landmines. Is it any wonder that America is descending into pagan barbarianism?

Sadly, it gets worse. A little further into the magazine, I read an article that was supposed to affirm a young girl’s value. It read, “As parents of teens, we must start the conversation with our daughters before they head off to college, where they’ll be exposed to cultural and academic definitions of gender roles.” A few sentences down it continued with, “Teach her to understand and treasure her God-given nature.” As I continued, I really began to wonder at their perception of a young woman’s God-given nature because the message they advocated had absolutely nothing to do with God.

Ironically, they encouraged parents that the best place to start the discussion is right where your daughter finds herself today—studying in high school. Biology teaches the science of chromosomes …Your daughter will most certainly roll her eyes as she clarifies, “Yeah, I already learned that.” A great parenting moment would be to then ask your daughter, “Have you ever wondered why we are created differently? Does this have any significance in what genders can or should do?” Let her do the pondering. Remember that some of the best lessons learned will come from your daughter’s own musings rather than your lectures.

Let me say up front that if daughters are rolling their eyes at this stage of their life, there is a big problem with rebellion at home, which should have been dealt with at its first onset during toddlerhood. Secondly, the magazine begins the paragraph saying that the best place to start is with the information that she will be getting in her biology class at school, but then arrogantly cautions parents to refrain from lecturing their own children because the best lessons come from children’s own musings. From this we can gather nothing else than it is okay for humanist, evolutionist biology instructors to lecture children while parents should leave it to their children to discover truth from their own reasoning. I was astonished!

The article goes on to say that most females are natural caretakers. A great caretaker can multitask, whether in the home, in the workplace or in her friendships. The article ends with this advice to parents: So tell your daughter to dream big and work hard to pursue her goals.

I don’t disagree that God instilled caretaking into females because God never calls us to something to which He does not thoroughly equip. And since God created females to care for their families, He certainly blesses them with immense nurturing abilities. What I don’t agree with is that Focus on the Family, who should be focusing on the family, not only encourages girls to pursue careers away from their families, but empowers them to embrace the lie that a woman can have it all because a great caretaker can multitask, whether in the home, in the workplace or in her friendships.

Well, they may think so, but the vast evidence of divorce, broken homes, teenage suicide, and a culture adrift all says otherwise. Young woman may care for their co-workers with coffee, cupcakes, and friendly conversation at the office, but they cannot nurture their own children or their husband from afar. Instead, God emphatically tells us to “encourage young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be blasphemed.” Titus 2:4,5

What is woefully lacking in this article (or for that matter throughout the entire magazine) is God’s Word and encouragement for conformity to God’s design for families. If indeed daughters dreamed big of raising godly warriors for transforming our culture and worked hard at home towards that lofty goal, our nation would quickly return to its ancient foundation of strong, stable, united, happy families, which in turn would reap a booming economy all because of obedience. Unfortunately, this is not the line of pursuit recommended.

I must confess, though, that these articles allow us to see exactly where this worldly line of reasoning leads. For example, when referring to husbands’ and wives’ roles in the home, the article entitled “Whose Job Is It Anyway” sums up the consequence of blurring God’s definitive order. As a result of corrupting the nature of the female caretaker, a couple who have been married for 15 years explain how theyinadvertently found a perfect way to organize household tasks. Amy explains, “We had only been married for a month or two when I offhandedly asked my husband what chore he hated. He quickly said, ‘Laundry. What about you?’ I replied, ‘Dishes.’ Ever since, I’ve done all the laundry, and he’s done all the dishes.”

How would you like to raise a son to be a godly leader, husband, and father only to marry a woman who abdicates her role because she hates dishes? Can you imagine the man of the house wearing an apron each evening as he washes dishes? For the first 35 years of my marriage, I have not had a mechanical dishwasher because I am the dishwasher. It was just a few weeks ago that I received my first one as part of our kitchen remodel. I have had it for a month, and still have not even used it, because I have always been the dishwasher and am somewhat loathe giving up my duty. And I can tell you most emphatically that I do not want my husband washing our dishes each night because that is my job, not his. That is not to say that he doesn’t help me once in a while or that I don’t help him outside with more manual tasks. What I am saying is that washing dishes, cooking, and cleaning are my duties because God commands me to be keeper of my home and my family. And if truth were known, I take great pride in being keeper of my home and family. In fact, I think it is the greatest job on earth and would not trade it in for the world.

Which leads me to another example of a modern family in this article whose roles display a gross perversion of God’s order where David cooks, vacuums, and cares for the exterior of the house, whileKelli does the rest of the interior cleaning and laundry. And, it adds, If you try these strategies and find chores are still causing conflict, consider hiring outside help…After cleaning came up in our counseling sessions one too many times, our counselor said, “Can you makeroom in the budget for a cleaning lady?” We call it marriage insurance.

Wow, imagine that! If our sons just hire maids after they tie the knot, they can guarantee marital bliss with those wives who fail to do the work God clearly mandated for them! I really had trouble believing this came from Focus on the Family, but the root of this reasoning goes back to the article on a girl’s gender and value. Under the subheading of Does Equal Mean Identical? Hope in God’s Truth, the magazine espousesthatour Christian faith has established equality among the genders…”there is neither…male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” God treasures His children equally…So tell you daughters to dream big and work hard to pursue her goals.

Hey baby, you have come a long way! Although you might have children, don’t fret, God’s truth teaches us to hope. Since you are equal to any man, you don’t have to be the sole caregiver of your family. A great caregiver can multitask, whether in the home or in the workplace, soyou can continue to work and engage your husband as your maid, or hire outside help and a nanny, too, if need be. Besides, “the church” will help you manage as you run your kids from one caregiver to the next so you can pursue…well I could say dreams here, but if truth be told, “the church” has made this the destiny of every young woman, even those who had dreams of being keepers at home.

When it comes right down to it, it had been this double-minded, lukewarm thinking that forged and fueled our nation’s apostasy in the first place. The fact is, men and women are equally born with a nature that is willfully rebellious towards God. They are equally guilty of their sins and deserving of eternal damnation. So that apart from God’s merciful redemption both will be equally condemned to hell. The problem lies in desiring to be as God in determining good and evil for themselves (Genesis 3:5), and thus the magazine and modern church fail to quote Ephesians 5, which clearly lays out the order of the home with the father being the head of the household.

Totally mislabeled, instead of Thriving Family, this magazine should read Thriving Worldly Individuals. But lest you think that this deception is confined to more mainstream organizations, consider that there are many learning centers, organizations, libraries, and churches within the homeschooling community that use the words “family, covenant, home, and vision” in their title, when all their efforts are thrown into equipping individualism with no vision for family at all. This is the epitome of what it means to be an “angel of light” or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Remember the enemy’s most calculating, strategic strikes are from within the camp, disguised as one of the flock.

At this point it may seem unnecessary to point out other discrepancies with God’s Word, but each of these points all work hand in hand to secure our demise, so allow me to continue. The answer to the problem of children texting around the clock is a technology-free bedroom—or at least turning off the phone at night. Really? God says that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, so why are these kids allowed to text their friends and even more importantly, why do they possess their own phones that are at their disposal at all times?

Of course, without Dad and Mom’s presence when they rise up, sit in their house, walk by the way, and when they lie down, these children are adrift in time, and thus fill the void with friends, so I guess the phone becomes the caregiver at this point. And then Focus on the Family says that there is the satellite that beams in their favorite television programs.

Dispensing with godly wisdom, pandemonium reigns, hurling families into all kinds of mischief when if God’s way was followed through discipleship and productivity, there would not be any time for these things. So why, you may ask, would Focus on the Family promote such godless guidance? I believe the answer lies in their perception of child rearing, which so clearly reveals their theology at this point in time. Consider their belief that stressful classroom situations are opportunities for our children to practice—with our support and supervision—the life skills needed to get along in this world. School is a great place to prepare for life!

Wow, I have to admit that I was shocked at this statement! It is inconceivable to me that Christians could totally disregard the compelling evidence of evil that exists in our schools today and the protagonists’ efficacy of victory over our nation through the brainwashing of our children. Why over forty years ago my public school educators were promoting humanism, feminism, abortion, matriarchal societies, homosexuality, socialism, and communism. How much bolder do you think they are today? And Focus on the Family thinks that school is a great place to prepare for life? Yeah, if you want to be a feminist or a homosexual or a socialist or a communist! In fact this is what we are facing in mass today because of the apostate church. And I can tell from personal experience, from both my experience as a student, and as an elementary educator, that school is absolutely the best place to prepare for that kind of life.

Redemption of God’s Covenant People from the Power of Egypt

To be sure, it is the result of my experience that has led me to engage in the battle over the life and death of the family for the past forty years, starting in seventh grade when I confronted my teacher for being a communist and promoting his agenda. Since then I have refuted this demonic line of thinking in papers and in face-to-face discussions, by speaking truth to teachers and students alike, and for the past twenty-seven years, in There’s No Place Like Home newsletter, at our meetings, and our conference. Together with Jon, we have diligently labored towards delivering people out of their bondage to Egypt by equipping parents to disciple their own children, fathers to be leaders of their homes, and mothers to be keepers at home. Undaunted by cultural norms, our focus has been on the family, and our families are thriving.

Thoroughly disgusted at this point, I threw the magazine into the trash. Yet as I reflected on this travesty, the most disheartening scope of conflict remains within our own homeschooling community. And our greatest contention is with those who continue to work at keeping our families in bondage to Egypt, which brings me to the title of this article: Psychology of Slavery.

You may wonder what this has to do with homeschoolers, or Christians in general, but I can tell you from studying Exodus these past few years that it has everything to do with us. More importantly, if we don’t understand the truth of the hold that this slave psychology has on the vast majority of professing Christians, we will most certainly lose the battle in this nation and die in the wilderness just like the Israelites did.

So follow with Jon now as he comments on this marvelous summation of the problem we face from Gary North’s Moses and Pharaoh: The Psychology of Slavery (pages 254-261). Beginning with this poignant scripture, Gary reveals the heart of the people: Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, “Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.”Exodus 14:12

Like us, God has drawn the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt’s (the world’s) bondage, and yet because of their slave mentality, the people continued to embrace the psychology of slavery. Gary North writes: The Hebrews were convinced that their position as servants in the land was permanent. They had been slaves in body, and their responses to Moses, time after time, were the responses of people who were also slaves in their souls. Pharaoh soon became convinced that he had made a mistake in allowing them to leave and the Hebrews soon became convinced that they had made a mistake in listening to Moses and leaving. The Hebrews could not forget the earthly power of their former master; they seemed unable to acknowledge the awesome power of their new master, Jehovah. Their cry went up to Moses: better to have served as earthly slaves in Egypt than to bear the visible risks and burdens of freedom under God… Neither Pharaoh nor the Hebrews could admit that “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).

Even though God drew us out of bondage to the world and set us on the path to the promised land, many continue to salivate for the leeks and onions back in Egypt and thus instead of being empowered to disciple their children as God commands, go back to Egypt through learning center classes, and every other class under the sun that involves dispersing family members into individual cells of bondage to personal pursuits.

The Bible contrasts two sorts of servitude: slavery to the earthly life and its sinful perspectives, on the one hand, and slavery to God, whose “yoke is easy” and whose “burden is light” (Matt. 11:30), on the other. Slaves unto life or slaves unto death: men cannot escape from subordination. The lure of Satan is to convince men that they can achieve freedom from all subordination by asserting their own autonomy and sovereignty—in short, to be as God. The result is temporal ethical subordination to Satan, and eternal judgmental subordination to God.

Psychologically, they were still slaves of Egypt, always tempted to look backward at their former home and former masters. The stark reality of truth is that the homeschoolers who continue to pursue Egypt through learning centers are still slaves of Egypt!

Psychologically speaking, they were marching out of Egypt more than they were marching toward Canaan. But the discipline of marching was basic to their training, a means of transforming their vision and motivation. This is why fleeing from sin is so important. It is a means of transforming our vision and our motivation. That is why someone who sits on the fence, who is not opposed to compromise, will be vomited out of God’s mouth.

Earthly slavery, as manifested clearly in the history of the Exodus, involves at least three factors: slavery to food, slavery to the past, and slavery to the present. The Hebrews cursed Moses, for he had served them as a deliverer. He had enabled them to cast off the chains of bondage. They looked to the uncertainty that lay before them (the Red Sea) and the chariots behind them, and they wailed. They had lost what they regarded as external security in Egypt, a welfare State existence, and they resented Moses’ leadership. They had not confidence in God and God’s promised future. Looking resolutely over their shoulders, they stumbled at the very border of freedom, the Red Sea. Fearing death in freedom, this generation died in the wilderness. Better to serve in Egypt than die in the desert, they proclaimed. God then proved to all but Caleb and Joshua, who never believed in this slave slogan, that it was much better to die in the wilderness than to serve in Egypt. Best of all, God showed the next generation, was the conquest of Canaan. But the Israelites of Moses’ day could not see that far into the future; they saw only the past and present—a present bounded, they believed, by Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea. What they saw as the end of their lives was in fact only an obstacle course.

Slave to food. Once they had been delivered from their Egyptian enemies, they were determined to keep their heads riveted to the rear anyway. They were stiff-necked indeed…Better to have died in Egypt, they complained, “when we did eat bread to the full,” than to die in the wilderness (Ex.16:3). They had short memories about their former condition. So the Lord gave them manna. “Not good enough,” came the cries, “We need meat. In Egypt, we had garlic and onions and leeks and melons. Mere manna, even if accompanied by liberty, can hardly compare”…

Their problem was not protein deficiency. Their problem was a theological deficiency. Their god was their belly (Phil. 3:19). Their stiff necks did not permit them to look up to the heavens and rejoice in the source of their manna….

Their affections were placed preeminently on the creature, not the Creator. Satisfaction of physical hunger was more important to them than the obtaining of spiritual and eternal life from the life giver…Repeatedly they did not ask for food in faith. Repeatedly they complained against God and Moses, and expressed a preference for Egypt. They never got the message…They had developed a taste for slavery, literally.

Slaves to the past. How could they have forgotten the grinding bondage of their former state? Could they learn nothing from history? In a word, no. Historiography is an intellectual reconstruction which man attempts, and he hopes that his reconstruction resembles the actual events of the past…The events of history teach nothing to those who are blind to God’s sovereignty over these events.

The Israelites told Moses that death in Egypt would have been preferable to the responsibilities of godly liberty. The pain of dying would have been over by now, they complained. Wouldn’t the graves of Egypt have been preferable (Ex. 14:11)? They faced the responsibilities of life and grumbled.Fathers and mothers, especially fathers, you are responsible for discipling/teaching your children. Grumble; grumble. Parents, especially fathers, you are responsible for teaching theology. Grumble; grumble. Parents, especially fathers, you are responsible for training your sons to be leaders of home, church, and government. Fathers and mothers, you are responsible for training your daughters to be submissive wives, mothers, and keepers at home. Grumble; grumble. Parents, especially fathers, you are responsible for managing your homes. Grumble; grumble. Moms, you are responsible for a clean, tidy, well-appointed home. Grumble; grumble. Moms, you are responsible for making nourishing, tasty meals each day. Grumble; grumble. Moms, you are responsible for creating a welcome haven for your family. Grumble; grumble. Moms, you are to be keepers at home so the word of God will not be blasphemed. Grumble; grumble.

They were blinded by a false vision of the past.Why, I went to classes and participated in sports, and I turned out okay. Hmm? They preferred to live in terms of historical fantasy rather than face the realities of life. Let’s face the facts. Although many claim to be Christians, they never left Egypt. They are still slaves. They preferred to remember their bondage in Egypt as a golden age by comparison, thereby trading the opportunities of the present for the imaginary comforts of the past. Is it any wonder that God imposed upon them the ritual observance of the Passover?... The mandatory bitter herbs were educational.

Slaves to the present. The laws of the Old Testament recognized the existence of psychological slavery. Restrictions were placed on the administration of that institution. The case laws of the Old Testament begin with the laws of slavery (Ex. 21). Slavery was never intended to be normative for the people of God. Debtors who sold themselves into slavery went free in the seventh (sabbatical) year (Deut. 15:2). Criminals who went into slavery to pay off the restitution payment owed to the victim could be kept in slavery until the debt was finally paid, but criminal acts were not considered normative for Israel. It took a special vow, marked by a hole punched in the slave’s ear, to place a man in voluntary lifetime slavery (Ex. 21:5,6). The biblical injunction regarding slavery is seen in Paul’s assertion that a godly man should accept an offer of freedom from his master (1 Cor. 7:21,22). The exercise of godly dominion under God is made more effective by widespread personal freedom.

There is little doubt that the affairs of this life are burdensome. If getting out of life’s burdens were the essence of human life, then death would be preferable to life. Paul recognized this fact even more clearly than the murmuring Hebrews did. Yet he made it clear that the present responsibilities of godly service were more important than his desire to depart from the body to be with Christ (Phil. 1:22-26). As a freeman, Paul saw the burdens of the present as an opportunity. He was to serve God as an instrument for the extension of God’s kingdom. He did not think it proper to escape prematurely from this earthly service in order to enjoy heaven’s rest.

The Bible tells us that we are to be slaves to the future. Life, despite its petty burdens, is a resource. Free men are not chained to life; they are users of it. Servants of a sovereign God are to be free men, and free men use life as a means of attaining long-run victory, both personally and covenantally, in the final day, and also in time and on earth. Life is like a high-powered rifle, which is painful to fire because of the recoil. In the hands of God’s servant, life has a specific purpose. It is an instrument of victory. However painful it may be to fire, the godly man knows that it is much more painful for those on the “receiving end.” Better to suffer the pain of a recoiling rifle than its projectile. Our task is to aim the weapon and pull the trigger. God will heal our bruised shoulders just as surely as He will guide the bullets to their predestined targets.

To the victors go the spoils. The Hebrews of Moses’ day should have learned this on the night of Exodus. Joshua and Caleb learned this lesson well. Their contemporaries were overtaken in the wilderness by death, the event they had feared most, for their fear of the present had blinded their vision of the spoils of Canaan, which lay ahead.

Let me reiterate what we have said many times before. The family is God’s strategy for victory, the very heart and soul of His covenant, the key to life, and the core to the Gospel. It is what forged Christian civilizations and the bedrock on which they rest. And it is only our fidelity to God’s covenant that can alter our perilous course.

Many of our contemporaries have no vision for the future. Living in the present, they not only reject their own responsibilities, but also continue to provide more opportunities to keep our families in slavery. How ironic that our forefathers came to America because they would rather die in the wilderness than allow their children’s souls to be corrupted by worldliness, yet their progeny would rather remain in slavery and have their children’s souls corrupted by worldliness than be set free in the land of promise and responsibilities and so end up dying in the wilderness.

It is this future-orientation that marks the free man’s perspective. He makes decision in terms of the future, has confidence in the future, and can happily sacrifice present income for increased income in the future. This means sacrificing our personal comforts, time and energy, for our children’s children’s future.

As a responsible agent in God’s kingdom, the redeemed man is motivated more by future successes than by present enjoyments. The uncertainties of life are less of a threat to him than the certainties of the welfare State and slavery. To remain in bondage to Satan, whose destruction in the future is sure, is to remain earth-bound, and ultimately present-bound psychologically. A future-oriented man or culture is operating in terms of a perspective which is innately biblical, for it is Satan’s goal to squander his assets in the present, given his inevitable defeat in the future. It is Satan who revels in the present, dreaming of his triumphs in the past. He shudders at his prospects for the future. Many squander their time and their children because of their earth bound worldliness.

Joseph’s bondage was external, not mental. The same was true of the three young Hebrews in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was a captive, but he continued to wind up in positions of authority. Again and again, external bondage became a training ground for external victory, precisely because the bondage was merely external rather than psychological. Psychological bondage, a reflection of spiritual bondage to sin, is a more powerful form of bondage than physical bondage.

The Hebrews of Moses’ day had become slaves psychologically because they had become slaves to sin and slaves to a false religion, the escapist religion. Having abandoned hope in the future, they clung mentally to the past. They hoped continually to return to the bondage of the past in order to escape the burdens of the present. Joshua and Caleb also resented the burdens of the present, but their focus was the promised victory in Canaan. Their chief burden in the present was the past-orientation of their fellow Hebrews. They had to wait for God to leave that generation in the dust of the wilderness before they could begin to organize the victory of the future. They had learned the lesson of the Red Sea. They had no desire to hear God’s words again, the words He had spoken to Moses: “And the LORD said unto Moses, ‘Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward’” (Ex. 14:15). As psychological slaves, they resisted unto the end God’s call for them to go forward. The best they could manage was wandering around in a 40-year circle.

Why is it that so many homeschoolers are wandering in full circle—from school and extracurricular activities back to learning center schools and extracurricular activities? Because they continue to return to the bondage of the past in order to escape the burdens of the present—the burdens of discipling their own children. Sadly, their failure to take responsibility will keep them and their posterity from the spoils of Canaan, which lay ahead for those who have a vision to see God’s blessings on covenanted families.

We need to recognize the extraordinary power of the psychology of slavery. For at least 80 years, the Hebrews in Egypt had been in physical bondage. When Moses returned from the wilderness, they did not want his deliverance. They did not want God’s deliverance. They much preferred life in Egyptian slavery, despite its hardships. Their commitment to sin and slavery was to last an additional 40 years after the Exodus. So powerful is the psychology of slavery, which is a manifestation of the escapist religion, that it took 120 years, at the very least, to stamp it out in Israel. Will it take that long for the homeschooling community?

They were bondservants to a false religion—escapist religion—and also bondservants to sin, bondservants to the Egyptians, and bondservants to fear. They had adopted certain aspects of Egyptian religion and culture—the longing for leeks and onions and golden calves—and their separation from these false gods was not purged out by the first Passover or the 39 that followed. The leaven of Egypt was still with them until the day that all but two of them died in the wilderness.

There is an alliance between power religion and escapist religion. The psychology of tyranny is the other side of the ethically rebellious coin of the psychology of slavery, just as sadism is the other side of masochism. Bullies need victims. The power religionists and the escapist religionists need each other.This is truly the story of the bullies who need the escapists to run their learning centers and groups that continually promote activities that disperse the family. And true of those escaping their responsibilities, who in turn need the bullies to placate their fear of liberty and lust for Egypt.

Praise God, there are more faithful parents than just Joshua and Caleb in this homeschooling community, whose children’s children will be victorious in conquering their culture for Christ. It is all about possessing a vision for the future and sacrificing everything for that future. It is looking ahead with a vision of knowing what we want to achieve in our lifetime and what we want our posterity to look like when we are dead and gone in twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred, four hundred years, or even a thousand generations from now.

Candy and I have a vision for our posterity, and that is why we spend all our time, energy, and monies on strengthening our family and other families in the family covenant that God gave Abraham. It is all about discipling our children to take dominion of every area of life for Christ. It is also why we are spending so much time, energy, and retirement monies on building a viable farm for our children’s children. And why we don’t waste time on frivolous endeavors that keep us from our most important duties.

Parents, you have a choice. You will either be slaves to Satan and Egypt or slaves to God whose yoke is easy. The handwriting is clearly displayed in His Word. Don’t wait until it is too late to claim what has been offered to you, until your opportunities to make a difference in your children’s life are past, and you find yourself lamenting the foolishness of your worldly decisions.

When asked, Socrates said that he was a citizen of the world. In contrast, a true saint is a citizen of the Promised Land, that land of Canaan, where Christ is Lord of everything. It is said in Luke 9:53 that Christ’s face was set toward Jerusalem. The bent of a Christian’s spirit, the frame of his heart, his temper, his words, his deportment, his habits, the places he visits, his faithfulness to his duties, shows that his face is towards Jerusalem. He desires not only Christ’s presence, but also conformity to his Holy image.

On the brink of destruction, Augustine admonishes the Romans’ corruption by attributing their nation’s calamities to their belief and conformity to their immoral gods. Time and time again he spoke out against the sins of Rome, while defending the faith in a living God who blesses obedience.

A Christian does not help man manage his worldly life. To the contrary, like Augustine, he contrasts the city of man with the city of God and points the way to the Promised Land. He pleads, and encourages, and equips families to thrive by adhering to God’s Word. While the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy, God came to give life and to give it abundantly. It is our job to reveal the antithesis between the two and lead the wayward to the City of God.

The Loss of Sound Theology Has Led to Social Chaos

In 1998, R. J. Rushdoony wrote in The Foundations of Social Order that the loss of sound theology in the church has led to the decay of Christian faith and life. The modern era has seen the growing irrelevance of Christian faith and doctrine to the world in general. Its presence is very real, but its influence increasingly weak and minor.

Harold J. Berman, in Law and Revolution, demonstrated how the doctrine of Christ’s atonement reshaped law and society, and how the present decline of that doctrine is leading to the death of Western civilization.

The abstraction of doctrine and theology from life has been one of the great disasters in the life of the church. Richard Weaver saw clearly that Ideas have Consequences. To abstract Biblical faith from the life to the classroom, and to limit its relevance to the private realm, is one of the great evils of the modern church. The Biblical prophets could not imagine such a departure. God being totally God and Lord over all things, no sphere of life or thought can be outside His government and authority.

Although Christians were a minority in and out of the Empire, they sang the TeDeum in the confident joy that the true believer is always in the vast majority in God’s universe: “All the earth doth worship thee…the heavens, and all the Powers therein; …Heaven and earth are full of the Majesty of the glory.”…people who believe that the opposition, however entrenched and numerically and politically strong, is merely a temporary cloud in God’s universe, will not be readily discouraged or deflected in their steady movement towards power and dominion. The enemy had only a silent god; the orthodox party had the self-revealing God. The enemy had the power of Caesar behind it; the orthodox believers had the power of the triune God behind them…They could therefore sing with joy, “Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ.”

Vida Scudder cited a revealing passage in Bede as illustrative of the different world of Christianity…we for the most part have lost our dominion over the creation that has been subjected to us, because we neglectto obey the Lord and Creator of all things. The creation that has been subject to us! How strangely had this quiet incidental phrase fallen on Pagan ears!

No man can affirm a faith if he affirms its opposite, nor can he defend a faith without waging war against its enemies. No unbeliever or heretic can be converted unless he be first recognized as an unbeliever rather than a brother under the skin.

To be a Christian means…restoration into Adam’s dominion and kingship over the earth.Such a faith makes for a magnificent confidence in the face of all things. For we have a confident and triumphant faith in the triune God who governs all history.

Never, Never, Never Give In

There is no story that explains so clearly the moral of this point as “Never, Never, Never Give In” by Marshall Foster [Taken from Nordskog Publishing, a CHEF vendor. Marshall Foster has been a speaker at the CHEF conference many times.]

For two hundred years, one small island nation built the greatest empire since Imperial Rome. Its ships ruled the seas, its colonies covered the world and the sun never set upon the Union Jack. Its empire controlled the gold and diamonds of Africa and the treasures of India. London was the world’s financial center. This nation among nations had the world’s currency and world trade itself was made possible only through the protection of her navies (which ended the age of the pirates).

On April 11th, 1912, the largest man-made object in history, the Titanic, set sail from Southampton as a symbol of this opulent empire. But, on April 12th the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, sending over 1,500 souls to the bottom of the Atlantic. Looking back, this event seemed a warning, an ominous sign for the empire. Within three decades, the glory that was the English Empire was no more, and London, the jewel of the empire, lay wasted by the bombs of Hitler’s Luftwaffe.

What went wrong? By the early 20th Century, England along with most of Europe had abandoned their evangelical faith and turned to the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest. The missionary movement which had driven the age of exploration was overtaken by greed as the driving force of colonization. The economic plundering of underdeveloped lands displaced the building of independent Christian nations. Then England along with all of Europe was humbled by two horrific world wars, the loss of their colonies and a great depression.

Just when there was no hope and the barbarian Nazis were about to overrun Christendom, God raised up a leader and saved England from extinction. His name was Winston Churchill. In the darkest days of WWII his words stirred the English to remember their roots as a Christian nation, and by divine grace their nation was saved.

How did this extraordinary leader turn the tide? First, he was honest about the collapse of the Empire. He said, “I have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but farther on the carpet ends. A little farther on there is many flagstones, and little farther on still they break beneath your feet.” While in parliament, before he was Prime Minister, Churchill tried desperately to warn England about the growing Nazi evil facing them. While Hitler launched a plan of rearmament, breaking his post-WW I agreements, England’s leaders convinced themselves that Hitler’s grievances were justified and that his demands were reasonable. Clinging to their deception, they signed treaties with Hitler, promising “peace in our time” which Hitler ignored. So the English quietly appeased Hitler with a new treaty. Churchill wrote, “The English-speaking peoples through their unwisdom, carelessness and good nature allowed the wicked to rearm.” He was hated for his warnings of Hitler’s rise by the pacifists controlling parliament and became a political pariah during the 1930’s.

Second, Churchill’s historical knowledge was a strength which provided him with perspective for seeing both past and future events. He knew that history teaches lessons that men ignore at their peril. Churchill said, “The greatest advances in human civilization have come when we recovered what we had lost: when we learned the lessons of history.” Historian Steven Mansfield states, “Strong leaders throughout the centuries have learned to gain the experience of age and even of the ages, by learning what the past has to teach. History has the power to lift a leader out of the shortsightedness of his own times and give him the perspective of centuries.” Today, our real history, which is infused with the power of Christian faith and providential protection, is banned from public knowledge and censored from schools, media and all institutions. Now we know why!

Third, Churchill saw as his life’s purpose the reviving of the glory of Christendom and believed that a moral order governs in the affairs of men. Mansfield states, “For Churchill the primary issue of the war was faith. He firmly believed that WWII was a battle between Christendom and the sinister paganism of Adolph Hitler and throughout the War, he replenished his unusual moral courage in worship and prayer.” He read Scripture throughout his life, discussed it with staff and friends and quoted lengthy passages from memory. Many of America’s public figures today have been shamed into hiding their faith and promising that it “won’t be the deciding factor in their decisions.”

Finally, Winston Churchill called the English people to their duty to God and country, and they responded with faith and perseverance. As the bombs fell on London in the terrifying summer of 1940, Winston slept in a bunker beneath the city and then walked with his wife through the rubble encouraging the frightened Londoners. Churchill’s explosive energy and his words filled with faith and vision lifted people out of their numbing fear. Along with his humor and his tears, he led people to work toward a destined future of “sunlit uplands.” He believed that good would triumph over evil.

Notice that Churchill did not call people to look to him or to the government for their needs. He challenged everyone to become a hero and believed that every Christian had a “duty to preserve the structure of a humane, enlightened Christian society.”

Churchill’s immortal words should call us to action and duty at this time of eminent peril for America. On December 30, 1941, he said, “Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our [nation]…the broader world...lies beyond our struggles…We have to win that world for our children. We have to win it by our sacrifices. We have not won it yet.”

At this most critical moment in our history may we challenge one another to raise leaders out of our homes and prepare ourselves, our family and our friends to become leaders of character and with deep biblical and historical roots. With passion and compassion, may we each make a difference in our time and as Churchill said, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yieldto the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Busy Investing in Our Family

Years ago, a letter Sonia received from a young girl left us both grieving for days over the busy distractions that separated her from her family and God’s purpose for her life. Confusing productiveness with worldly busyness, she spoke proudly of her daily engagement in learning center classes. Quite frankly, the parents’ pursuit of incessant occupation for this girl outside their home was nothing short of insanity—a desire to be like the world leading to family suicide! And that is exactly what happened years after this was written; as the members of this family have become estranged from one another, as each is consumed with his own friends and activities.

To encourage young girls to be content to be keepers at home, Sonia has turned the nature of this letter towards home with a rendition of Sonia’s days at home when she was this young girl’s age.

Dear Friend,

I hope this finds you and your family well and prospering. Sorry I have not written sooner, but I have been very busy learning important lessons from my parents while contributing to the well being of our family. Except for church, caring for our grandparents, and CHEF activities, most days find me home with my mother working for our family. We cook, clean, and garden together. Cleaning does not take that long because Mom has taught me to organize my thoughts before I begin and speedily work through each detail. As you know, she is not one to waste any minute. Each day we prepare hearty meals for my father, brothers, and employees and then an elegant dinner for the evening. The rest of our days are devoted to caring for our family, building up our family business, our CHEF families through our newsletter, website, family events, and conference, and our church families.

We just finished our fall cleaning, washed everything from top to bottom, organized our closets and drawers, and put out our fall decorations. Therefore, we are now concentrating our efforts towards preparing our garden for the winter by removing plants and weeds while preserving the last of our produce through drying, freezing, and making sauces and chutneys. Mom and I will also incorporate compost into one of our raised beds in preparation for the garlic we will be planting in October.

Since we love to create wonderful meals for Dad and the boys, we have recently spent much time selecting new recipes while gathering our fall favorites for upcoming meals. Soon we will be headed for the orchard to pick a variety of apples for canning, drying, and making into pies.

The boys have been busy working each day in our lawn and landscaping business with Dad, while I stay at home and take care of our business books. I also manage our family’s personal books and my grandparents’ books. Faithfully entering purchases each week and balancing each account will make the preparation of our taxes much easier this year. I also help Jedidiah with the billing in the evenings.

Mom and I are also working on our There’s No Place Like Home website, adding articles and pictures each week. I just learned how to add registration forms to the CHEF site and hope to learn how to add audio workshops and beautiful items for purchase sometime in the future.

Twice each week, my mom and I take care of my grandparents. We cook, clean, and garden there as well. Recently I placed all their records in their appropriate cases and ordered them according to preference so I can easily play their favorites like My Fair Lady, Music Man, Andy Williams, and Dave Brubeck.

I give my grandparents manicures and pedicures and massage them with lotion while they watch the DVDs that I order for them each week from the library that contain their favorite actors and actresses—Fred Astaire, Doris Day, Bing Crosby...

Recently, I was in charge of ordering free-range chickens. With other families ordering, we ended up getting 200 chickens. Soon I will be ordering our grains, salt, dried fruit, maple syrup, and honey. As soon as I have our order ready, I will send out an email to our families so that they can add their orders to ours.

For school this year, we are continuing our study of American history, concentrating on the Constitution and the men involved, while also finishing all the Political Sermons of the Founding Era. With this we are improving our writing skills, while also continuing our study of grammar. As we proceed through history, we are also learning the composers of each decade. As always we continue to read and study books from the Reformers/Puritans. Right now Mom is reading The Holy Spirit by John Owens to me. I am also reading The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss.

Mom and I just worked together on a wedding shower for a friend. We made frozen fruit cups, three-layered cheese torte, mango chutney log, punch and a chocolate cake. At the shower we had the mothers introduce themselves, the mother of the bride talk about her daughter, the daughter talk about her courtship, and the other mothers share their wisdom on marriage. It was a delightful time of fellowship.

Today, after taking a friend to the doctor, Mom and I made bread, sour dough starter, cinnamon rolls, and marinated steaks for dinner. We created a cilantro rice accompaniment, picked vegetables from the garden for the salad, cleaned house, and went through magazines for decorating and cooking ideas. We also answered homeschoolers’ emails and calls, worked on the conference, and set up CHEF activities.

Our days are never long enough to accomplish all we desire, but we always enjoy making our home a welcome haven for my father and brothers while working with them to build our family business and ministry.

I hope that you are well and fully occupied with benefitting your lovely family. Give them my warmest regards. I pray that God will fortify your hands as you diligently labor with your family to build up your family’s multigenerational estate and give you great joy in knowing that your labor is strengthening your family dynasty, church, community, and nation.